Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Costco Wholesale — Costco shares added 2.7% after the wholesale retailer posted quarterly numbers that beat analysts’ expectations. The company also announced a special dividend of $15 per share. Lennar — The homebuilder slipped 2.4% despite posting fourth-quarter results that topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations. New orders also surpassed estimates, but Lennar posted lower-than-expected gross margins on homebuilding. Solar stocks — A handful of solar stocks rose on Friday after Jefferies initiated coverage with buy ratings, citing declining solar equipment costs and incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act. First Solar jumped 3.5%, while Sunrun and Enphase Energy popped 4.4% and 5.1%, respectively. Darden Restaurants — Shares of the Olive Garden owner slipped 1% on mixed quarterly results. Darden posted adjusted earnings of $1.84 per share, topping the $1.74 expected by analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. Revenue came in at $2.73 billion, slightly short of the $2.74 billion expected. Scholastic — Shares of the publisher and distributor of children’s books tanked about 12% after posting a year-over-year decline in revenue. Scholastic also trimmed its full-year guidance. Quanex Building Products — Shares of the original equipment manufacturer were down more than 8% despite a fourth-quarter earnings beat. Quanex reported adjusted earnings of 95 cents on revenue of $295.5 million, topping the 70 cents per share on $291.0 million that analysts polled by FactSet had expected. The company failed to give “premature” guidance and said it would revisit it next year when it reported first-quarter earnings. Tractor Supply — Shares slipped 2.1% after Bank of America downgraded the retailer to underperform from neutral. The bank said demand and pricing challenges would pressure earnings and investor sentiment. Colgate-Palmolive — Shares added 1% after being upgraded by Bank of America Securities to buy from neutral. The bank said it expects Colgate-Palmolive to see U.S. volume and market share turning positive, above-average emerging markets growth and margin expansion. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Michelle Fox and Lisa Kailai Han contributed reporting.
